Ok. So I did some additional research on this issue. This is leaving me stumped as to why but I did the following.
Booted into Safemode --> Success (note no Networking)
Disabled as much VMWare stuff as I could find (services and drivers) then rebooted normally --> Success
Enabled VMWare VHCI Host Device -- Success (it booted ok)
Enabled VMWare Networking Devices -- Failed (it fails to boot)
Something in the VMWare Network devices are causing the system to fail to boot. This does explain why it affects both products but I am confused as to why this would happen at all. Can someone tell me why this would happen?
P.S. - At this point (without the devices) VMWare Player is usable in NAT mode and may work in bridge as well but untested. The system booted fine when I re-enabled the services but the virtual adapters are uninstalled.